The vaccine is unnecessary, it's dangerous, and it's disabling and killing young women.

I'm usually not the kind of person to say "I told
you so." But in this case, I'm more than happy to make an exception.

Two years
ago, I wrote an article called "A Virus that Causes
Cancer?" In it, I discussed the then-new vaccine Gardasil, which helps protect
women against the HPV virus, a sexually transmitted organism that can lead to cervical
cancer. Several states were in the process of mandating the vaccine--for girls as
young as 11--under intense pressure from Merck's lobbying efforts. I pointed out that
early sign were not good, with a high number of reported side effects including fainting,
loss of vision and seizures. More important, I noted that there had been absolutely no
studies on the long-term safety of the vaccine. Given the highly preventable
nature of HPV-related cervical cancer, I thought it was senseless--downright dumb--to
expose young girls to these kinds of risks.

I received a lot of feedback from that
article. Some thanked me. Others re-posted and re-published it in other
sources. But many, many people wrote to argue with me. Girls are going to have
sex no matter what we do. We need to protect them. What kind of freakish 1950's
era time warp do I live in? One doctor wrote an impassioned letter defending her
practice of vaccinating her young female patients with Gardasil. She wrote about the
critical importance of Gardasil in protecting our young women's futures--and acknowledged
almost as an aside that yes, there are still questions about the long-term safety of the
vaccine.

That was then. Let's fast forward two years.

I was
flipping around the TV channels the other night, and for some reason I stopped on the CBS
Evening News. (Must've been the Holy Spirit, because I'm generally not a big network news
fan.) And soon I was watching a feature story entitled "New Worries About Gardasil
Safety." The piece started with a very sweet-looking young girl. Gabby Swank, who got
the vaccine because "we felt almost pressured by the commercials." Afterward, she got
sicker and sicker, eventually suffering seizures, strokes and severe heart problems.
She is now too sick to even attend school. Next we went to a heartsick mother, Emily
Tarsell, whose daughter Chris wasn't as "lucky" as Gabby. Chris died after receiving
the vaccine.

Chris is not alone. 29 deaths have been reported from the
Gardasil vaccine. Twenty nine deaths. It almost makes me cry just to write it. Twenty
nine young women's lives have been cut short, all because a drug manufacturer convinced them
that a vaccine would "protect" them.

And among the living, the carnage
continues. A recent study by the National Vaccine Information Center compared Gardasil
side effects to another vaccine given to patients in the same age group. Gardasil led
to 3 times (that's 300%) more emergency room visits, 5 times (500%) more fatalities, and 30
times (3000%) more side effects. And these are not just minor side effects.
We're talking strokes, heart episodes, lupus, paralysis. Young girls seem to be
winding up permanently disabled. If you want to see for yourself, just google
"Gardasil video" to see young girl after young girl who has had to give up sports, social
life and even attending school because of Gardasil-induced health problems.

In the
mean time Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, is standing by their product. Last
July, when 15 young women had died from the vaccine, Merck said it believed that "no
safety issue related to the vaccine has been identified." No statement to the contrary
has been issued by Merck as of this writing, and their Gardasil web site continues to
encourage young women--and their parents--to avail themselves of the vaccine. And,
incredibly, Merck is now petitioning the FDA to be allowed to inject boys with the vaccine,
because they may be carriers of the virus.

All of this makes me really, really
mad. This is about putting profits (in Merck's case) and ideology (in the case of many
of Gardasil's advocates) over the lives and health of young, innocent women (and, if Merck
gets their way, men).

It would be one thing if we were vaccinating against some
uncurable deadly plague that was wiping out an entire generation. Then maybe the
benefits would outweigh the risks. But neither HPV nor HPV-related cancers are The
Plague. The virus is sexually transmitted, so abstinence and marriage to an uninfected
partner offers 100% protection. But we don't even need to tread into the treacherous
waters of the "kids are going to do it anyway" debate to acknowledge that HPV-related deaths
are extremely preventable.

We have pap smears, whichdetect
HPV-related warts and pre-cancerous changes to the cervix. It is because of our friend
the pap smear that cervical cancer deaths declined 74% between 1955 and 1992 - - the same
time period wherein the rate of unmarried sexual activity was rising dramatically.
Those cervical cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society, continue to decline
at a rate of about 4% a year.

We don't need Gardasil to prevent cervical
cancer. Gardasil is the closest thing I've ever seen to an out and out pharmaceutical
hoax foisted on American women under the guise of "public health." It is dangerous,
and only exists on the market today as a testament to corporate greed and the "profits over
people" mentality.

Please, do not allow yourself or your daughters to be injected
with the Gardasil vaccine. Tell others the same. Spread the word.

Young
lives may depend on it.

This column originally appeared on RealLove.net
on February 10, 2009. Click here to read more of Mary Beth Bonacci's columns.

Mary Beth Bonacciis internationally known for her talks
and writings about love, chastity, and sexuality. Since 1986 she has spoken
to tens of thousands of young people, including 75,000 people in 1993 at
World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado. She appears frequently on radio and
television programs, including several appearances on MTV.

Mary Beth holds a bachelor's degree in Organizational Communication from
the University of San Francisco, and a master's degree in Theology of Marriage
and Family from the John Paul II Institute at Lateran University. She was
also awarded an honorary doctorate in Communications from the Franciscan
University of Steubenville, and is listed in Outstanding Young Women
of America for 1997. Her apostolate, Real
Love Incorporated is dedicated to presenting the truth about the Church's
teaching about sexuality, chastity, and marriage.

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